Joey Young
she/her/hers
drag queen
When Joey Young was 19, she sneaked into Pittsburgh’s Pride march in a red latex outfit and sky-high heels to promote her music. Just a few short years later, Joey is coming off a year’s reign as Miss Continental Newcomer, part of the prestigious Miss Continental drag pageant system, and is looking to bring home the Miss Continental crown to Pittsburgh this year.
“The last two years have been really crazy,” Joey said. “I’ve been very fortunate. My community has been such a foundation for me and so supportive of me.”
Joey started out by performing her own original music at different venues in Pittsburgh’s queer scene. Since she was already performing in drag spaces and gay bars, she began doing drag herself around the age of 22.
“Drag for me, it’s like a fantasy world,” Joey said. “We all come from very complex backgrounds and levels of acceptance. When you come to the world of drag, it ... allows you to escape some of the things you have experienced in life. It’s that euphoric experience, putting the makeup on, putting the outfit on – it’s that that allows you to heal. The real world is tough for every person, but especially for queer people, and especially right now.”
Though at first drag was a space where Joey found escape, she eventually discovered her true self.
“I still feel the fantasy, that element, but now I have just come full circle, and I have found me through doing it,” she continued. “When I’m on stage, I don’t feel like I’m in a fantasy world. I feel like I’m living as myself authentically in drag.”
Joey currently is preparing to compete in the Miss Continental pageant over Labor Day weekend. The Continental pageant system was established in the 1980s for drag performers and is internationally known. Participants compete in qualifying pageants across the United States, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean. This is Joey’s second year competing in the Miss Continental pageant – she ranked in the top 5 in last year's pageant, just a few months after securing the Miss Continental Newcomer crown.
“It’s super important to me to go and give everything I can, because I really believe in the position it holds in our community,” Joey said. “So I’m excited to focus on that and be the thing that I put all my heart and soul into and bring that crown home to Pittsburgh.”
As a McKeesport native, Joey looks at where she is now and remembers herself as a teenager.
“It makes me feel so honored because I know when I was 17 or 18 in high school in McKeesport, I would've given anything to see someone like me up there,” she said. "Visibility, representation – that is the thing that keeps us all going. Seeing people like us succeed or get onto these stages, it proves to us that it’s possible for us. Once that door is open, any one of us can keep going up.
“Five years ago, I was running around a Pride parade and no one knew who I was,” Joey said. “Now, the hard work pays off.”